Winter Olympics: Great Britain's gold medal dreams dashed by series of fourth-place finishes
Great Britain's hopes of securing a first medal at the Winter Olympics were dashed as several athletes, including snowboarder Mia Bruks, skier Kirsty Muir, and curlers Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds, finished fourth in their respective events.
The next day of the Winter Olympics brought a mix of hope and heartache for the Great Britain team, as they came agonizingly close to securing medals in several events, only to finish fourth in each. Snowboarder Mia Bruks led the way in the Big Air event, but a costly mistake in her final run left her in fourth place with 159.50 points. Japan's Kokomo Murase took gold with 179 points, while New Zealand's Zoi Sadovskiy Sinnott won silver and South Korea's Yu Seungin took bronze.
Bruks, just 19 years old, had been considered a strong medal contender in the Big Air event, having successfully landed a 'backside 1620' – a complex trick involving four and a half rotations – in training. However, she admitted to getting a bit too much rotation on her landing, causing her to lose balance and stumble. 'It was a bit too much spin, maybe I should try 1800 next time,' she joked.
Despite the disappointment, Bruks remains in contention for a medal in the slopestyle event, which begins on February 16. She is a two-time X Games gold medalist and was crowned the youngest adult world champion in slopestyle at the 2023 World Championships in Georgia.
The British curling team of Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds also fell short in their bid for a medal, losing to Sweden 9-3 in the mixed doubles semifinal. They will now play for the bronze medal against host nation and reigning world and Olympic champions Italy.
The day's misery was compounded in the freestyle skiing event, where Kirsty Muir finished fourth in the women's slopestyle, just 0.41 points shy of a bronze medal. The 21-year-old accumulated 76.05 points in her third run, but it wasn't enough to catch Canadian Megan Oldham, who took bronze.
In the ice dance event, the British pair of Lilah Fir and Lewis Gibson were fourth after the rhythmic dance, and they will aim to become the country's first Olympic medalists in figure skating since Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean in 1994.
Despite a day without a medal, the British team remained upbeat, with several events still to come and a strong chance of securing a medal in the days ahead.